DAKAR, Senegal — (AP) — A bomb explosion killed several members of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali in the troubled northern city of Kidal, a spokesman for the mission said today.

An intelligence official in northern Mali said that the dead included two Senegalese peacekeepers. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The car packed with explosives detonated in front of a bank guarded by the peacekeepers, he said. The explosion was so great it blew open the doors of houses in the area.

Abdallah Ag Ibrahim, a resident of Kidal, said the bank crumbled, a U.N. armored personnel car caught fire and a nearby school was in flames. He said he saw four people who were either dead or injured.